Soil, Will, and Word: How the Kingdom Actually Grows

by Dave Miller

In Surrendered, Not Silenced, I argued that the gospel does not erase the human will but restores and aligns it under a greater King, a perfect Master. In Freed to Will, we saw that this restoration becomes possible only because the Spirit crucifies our hardened hearts enslaved to sin and gives us a new heart capable of desiring life. The will is not destroyed; it is liberated and can be retrained. Yet, your heart’s desire is still at your discretion and you are still responsible for what you will. 

If the will is not erased but restored, and if the Spirit frees it from slavery to sin, then the next question presses forward.

What does a heart do with the Word of the Kingdom useful for teaching, training, rebuking and correcting? 

Jesus answers that question in Mark 4.

“Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep. When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.” Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.” -- Mark 4:3-9 (CSB)

The Parable of the Soils does not primarily describe different types of people “out there.” It describes what happens when the Word of the kingdom encounters the interior life. It is a parable about the heart as soil and the will as ground in which the kingdom either germinates or withers.

The Heart as Soil

In Mark 4:14–15, Jesus explains, “The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away” NLT.

Notice the imagery. The Word is seed. The heart is soil. The condition of the soil determines the outcome. This is not about intellectual capacity. It is about interior posture.

The path is hardened. The rocky soil is shallow. The thorny soil is crowded. The good soil is receptive and deep. None of these descriptions refer to IQ, personality type, or religious background. They refer to the state of the heart and the direction of the will.

The kingdom does not grow in abstraction. It grows in persons.

Germination and Resistance

Seed contains life, but life must penetrate soil. A hardened path prevents penetration. A shallow layer allows quick growth but no depth. Competing thorns choke vitality. Each image corresponds to a volitional condition.

A hardened heart resists surrender. It hears the Word but refuses entry.A shallow heart welcomes inspiration but avoids transformation.A divided heart attempts to host the kingdom while preserving rival loyalties.The good soil does something different. It receives, holds fast, and produces fruit.

Mark 4:20 states, “And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest” NLT. Acceptance in this context is not passive agreement. It is volitional embrace. The will bends toward the Word rather than away from it.

The Kingdom and the Will

This parable reveals something crucial, the kingdom germinates in the will. The Word does not bypass volition. It confronts it. It challenges allegiances. It exposes rival yokes. It calls for reorientation. The Spirit empowers, but the will must yield.

In the previous reflections, we established that the Spirit frees the will from slavery to sin and places it under a better Master. Mark 4 shows what happens to a hard heart and a soft heart. The heart that sees and hears becomes cultivatable.

Before regeneration, the soil resists cultivation. After regeneration, it can be worked. The Spirit softens the ground. The Word plants truth. The believer must cooperate in tending. This cooperation does not mean earning grace. It means stewarding life.

Overcome by the Word and Spirit

The kingdom grows only when the heart is overcome by the Word and Spirit “Overcome” does not imply coercion. It implies permeation.

The Word penetrates assumptions.

The Spirit exposes idols.

Conviction uproots thorns.

Obedience deepens roots.

Fruit does not appear because information was delivered. Fruit appears because the Word took root in the will and reshaped desire. Jesus says the harvest multiplies thirty, sixty, and one hundred times. That multiplication flows from interior transformation. A heart aligned with the King becomes generative. The kingdom expands from inside out.

Cultivation Is Ongoing

The Parable of the Soils does not describe a single moment at conversion. It describes an ongoing reality of a heart, when that heart encounters the truth of the Kingdom and the better way of Jesus. Every hearing of the Word presents the same four possibilities.

Will you resist?

Will you receive shallowly?

Will you divide your allegiance?

Or will you submit deeply?

The difference between fruitfulness and barrenness does not lie in seed quality. The Word remains potent. The Spirit remains powerful. The difference lies in the posture of the heart. The will remains central.

A Kingdom Harvest

If we understand the previous foundations, this parable becomes intensely personal. You cannot blame God for unfruitfulness while neglecting the condition of your soil. You cannot pray for harvest while refusing cultivation. The kingdom grows where the Word penetrates and the Spirit governs.

The gospel frees your will.

The Spirit trains your will.

The Word directs your will.

The kingdom harvests through your will.

But when, and only when, you have eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit says, and that has everything to do with the posture of your heart. Mark 4 does not call you to disappear. It calls you to become fertile. The question is not whether the seed carries life. It does. The question is whether your heart remains open, soft, and surrendered enough for that life to overcome, transform, and multiply.

The kingdom germinates in soil. The soil is your heart. The harvest depends on whether your will yields to the Word and the Spirit. And that decision remains before you every time you hear Him speak.